Song Three

Beyond any doubt that I have there are five greatest events.  The first is creation.  In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.  What power displayed, what wonder offered to us and what tremendous blessings are ours in this grand earth and life given to us for our use and pleasure.  The second is the birth of Christ Jesus, but let me skip that for now.  The third is the Savior dying on the cross so that His blood might wash us clean and we could be adopted into the family of God the Father of all.  Surely it was a black, dismal day, filled with pain, gore, blood, heartache and death.  But it was a wondrous day too.  A day when sins were condemned in the flesh, life and death of Jesus.  A day when the greatest words, as Jesus pushed himself up on his nail stabbed feet, were whispered through teeth clenched against the pain,  "Father, forgive them for they don't know what they're doing."  A handful watched and wept while the majority ranted and ridiculed, laughing at his torment.  But then, early on Sunday morning, the fourth great thing happened.  Resurrection!  The stone rolled; soldiers fainted; angels came to see; the death cloth neatly folded and Jesus came walking out and lying battered, bloody and beaten behind him, still in the tomb, was the great enemy…Death.  Death was defeated and became a servant to believers from that moment on. 

And the fifth?  That's the strange one.  The fifth was the day I was born and for you it was the day you were born.  That day you and I were blessed to take part in this great thing called life.  We were blessed to share the earth and its glories.  We were given an opportunity to share a relationship with the God of all grace, who loves us more than life itself, as He demonstrated on the cross.  Without our own birth, of course, we wouldn't know any of these things and we couldn't share them.  So we have to count our own birth as one of the greatest things that ever happened, don't we?

Now let me go back to number two.  Imagine yourself on a grassy hill outside of Bethlehem.  Sheep are nervously baaing all around you and the ebon-dark sky, filled with stars, leaves you at peace and you drowse a little, head bobbing onto your chest.  The sheep quiet their moaning and there is a wonderful stillness.  Suddenly a great light and terribly awesome voice breaks your weariness and jolts you upright. 

"Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord."

After that the sky is filled with angels all singing "Glory to God in the highest.  Peace.  Good will toward men!"

The poet, Placide Cappeau put himself there and wrote the words to my third favorite song:  "Oh holy night, the stars are brightly shining…"  And as he wrote and wondered at the greatness of the news he came to the one conclusion that we all ought to come to:  "FALL ON YOUR KNEES!  FALL ON YOUR KNEES!"  When Adolphe-Charles Adam put the words to music he knew that those words couldn't be sung pianissimo.  They were words of crescendo meant to be sung forte.  This was the great earth event:  God came to live with us!  God came!  Think of this, let your heart be filled with it.  How deep is the love of God?  Deep enough that He came to eat at our dinner table and wash our feet.  God came and the angels sang "GLORY!"  God came and we "FALL ON OUR KNEES!"

Martina McBride sings it A Cappella – this is a version I think you might like.

Oh Holy Night

Song Two

In 1989 Don Henley won the "Best Rock Vocal Performance-male" for his album "End of the Innocence".  One of the songs on the album was called "The Heart of the Matter."  It wasn't meant to be a spiritual song, but it certainly is, because the heart of the matter is forgiveness.  Of all the things we are looking for in this lonely, desperate world the greatest is forgiveness.  Cheating lovers want to be forgiven.  Murderers want absolution.  Liars and deceivers want to hear "I forgive you," more than anything.  Oh, I know that many times we want that only after we get caught, but still…

Psalm 32 talks about David's struggles after committing adultery with Bathsheba and having her husband killed in order to cover up his infidelity.  His mouth is dry and his stomach aches continually.  His bones feel arthritic and he can't look up to God whom he loves, but has hurt desperately.  The Psalm, written after Nathan the prophet came and confronted David, expresses the relief felt when the sin was exposed and forgiveness granted.  While it's true, David still lived through the consequences of his sin, he was also forgiven.  His relationship with the Father of glory was restored and his body aches and dry mouth ended with forgiveness.

I've felt those same pains and feelings.  Arguments with my wife, children or friends and the separation, the broken relationships and isolation all bore into my heart and filled me with the loneliness of great need.  And I knew that the only thing that could take care of the need was forgiveness.  A simple owning up to what I had done and an "I'm sorry," would clear it all away.  How stupid of me those so many times when my pride kept me waiting many hours, days and even weeks to find the humility to say a short little two word sentence.

Don Henley sings, "I've been trying to get down to the heart of the matter, but my will gets weak and my thoughts seem to scatter, but I think it's about forgiveness, forgiveness, even if…you don't love me anymore."  How sad it is when we wait too long to make those approaches and bend the knee, with hands lifted upward, pleading "I'm so sorry.  Forgive me!" that by the time we say it the love our lover one time felt ended up too tarnished to reflect the feelings we offered and our pleas went unheeded.

How many broken homes and relationships; How many alienated children and parents; How many friendships lost forever, because we refused or waited too long to say "I'm sorry"?  How many more will there be?  Forgiveness comes when we offer our humble apologies in time to make a difference.  So, whatever it is… don't wait.

I couldn't find the song on You Tube, but here's the link for Grooveshark.  Play the one on the End of the Innocence album.

The Heart of the Matter
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Song One

There are two songs that really move me emotionally and a third that makes me want to fall on my knees in worship to the God of all creation for His unfathomable love and the peace that passes all understanding.
The first two are love songs. Well, at least the first one is a love song. My wife and I have been married for forty three years. Neither of us is the same person we married all those years ago. We’ve grown older, of course, but we’ve also grown accustomed to each other. She depends upon me and I defend her. She hurts and I try to ease her pain. I hunger and she feeds me. I feel the need for closeness and she’s always there. It’s comfortable knowing she’s in the house and that we’re together, even when she’s doing her thing and I’m doing mine.

Helen Reddy sang a song called “You and Me Against the World” and though it’s generally a song of a mom’s love for her child, it’s still what I think about my wife. It’s always been the two of us against the world. Standing with each other, yet falling down so often. Loving each other, yet in that love we have hurt each other, sometimes badly. Still, through the hurts, heartaches and happiness we have stuck together and in the sticking we have become one – more and more, with each passing day…one.

The song (I’ve put a link below, please go listen to it) has a line that says:

And when one of us is gone
And one of us is left to carry on
Then remembering will have to do
Our memories alone will see us through
Think about the days of me and you
You and me against the world.

I know so many who have lost a spouse and I see the loneliness in their eyes and the pain of loss in their hearts and I know, yes it will be like this for one of us one day. The odds are we will not die together and one will be left to carry on. Ah, but love doesn’t have to die and memories are great gifts that God has given us so that we can be sure that we are never really alone. We can close our eyes and relive all the good times. And what’s so wonderful about memories is that every time we remember we can fix those memories to be however we wish them to be and we can remember them even greater than when they were first fixed in our minds.

I know it’s a great blessing that our memories alone will see us through. So, Baby, should you go first, I promise to remember…

You and Me Against the World